It was posted a day after Swift's Rolling Stone profile came out, where Swift talked about a frenemy widely speculated to be Perry: "For years, I was never sure if we were friends or not," Swift said. "She would come up to me at awards shows and say something and walk away, and I would think, 'Are we friends, or did she just give me the harshest insult of my life?' [Then] she did something so horrible. I was like, 'Oh, we're just straight-up enemies.' And it wasn't even about a guy! It had to do with business...She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me. And I'm surprisingly nonconfrontational—you would not believe how much I hate conflict. So now I have to avoid her. It's awkward, and I don't like it."

Don't you come for me

No, not today

Entertainment Weekly asked Perry whether there would be a "Bad Blood" response track on her new album two weeks ago. She said there was nothing directly about anyone, but then added this response:

One thing to note is: You can't mistake kindness for weakness and don't come for me. Anyone. Anyone. Anyone. Anyone. And that's not to any one person and don't quote me that it is, because it's not. It's not about that. Honestly, when women come together and they decide to unite, this world is going to be a better place. Period end of story. But, let me say this: Everything has a reaction or a consequence so don't forget about that, okay, honey.[Laughs]We got to keep it real, honey. This record is not about anyone else! This record is about me being seen and heard so that I can see and hear everyone else! It's not even about me! It's about everything that I see out there that I digest. I think there's a healing in it for me and vulnerability. If people want to connect and be healed and feel vulnerable and feel empowered and strong, God bless and here it is.

Which, given the song's lyrics, seem to indicate the entire thing was a hint: "Don't come for me" (phrased as "don't you come for me") and a patronizing "honey" are all over this song.

You're calculated

I got your number

In a 2015 GQ profile, Swift made it very clear she hates the word calculated (and Perry, here, may have made it clear that she was the former acquaintance GQ's writer Chuck Klosterman was having lunch with). From the interview:

Late in our lunch, I mention something that happened several years ago: By chance, I'd found myself having dinner with a former acquaintance of Swift's who offhandedly described her as "calculating." This is the only moment during our interview when Swift appears remotely flustered. She really, really hates the word calculating. She despises how it has become tethered to her iconography and believes the person I met has been the singular voice regurgitating this categorization. As she explains these things, her speech does not oscillate from the second mode.

"Am I shooting from the hip?" she asks rhetorically. "Would any of this have happened if I was? In that sense, I do think about things before they happen. But here was someone taking a positive thing—the fact that I think about things and that I care about my work—and trying to make that into an insinuation about my personal life. Highly offensive. You can be accidentally successful for three or four years. Accidents happen. But careers take hard work."

'Cause you're a joker

And I'm a courtside killer queen

And you will kiss the ring

You best believe

Perry's "you will kiss the ring" line could also be a nod to the fact Perry has performed the Super Bowl while Swift hasn't yet. During Perry's Super Bowl performance, some believe Perry took a jab at Swift by having her backup dancers come out in high-waist polka dot bikinis, similar to what Swift had been photographed in before:

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